First Christmas
by fresh-hot-yaois
Summary: Mary celebrates her first Christmas with the first three members of the dan. Implied Setomary.


**Christmas fic will be my demise. It's still early (only the seventh!) but we decorated last night and I've been getting into the holiday spirit despite the eighty degree heat. This is an idea I had in like October but publishing Christmas fic in October is really weird so I sat down and I wrote this today. Happy Holidays. **

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><p>With a first Christmas comes a first smile at lights on the tree and a first taste of warm gingerbread. She hadn't been with them long, and was only beginning to feel comfortable around them. One of them tied ribbons into her hair while she wrapped his present. She told Mary stories about Christmases before her coming there, how they would wake up at six in the morning and their father would make breakfast as they opened their gifts. How this was their first Christmas Eve without him.<p>

"But you'll still have fun this year, won't you?" Mary asked.

"Of course we will. We lost him but we found you." The girl hugged her tightly and told her to put the present under the tree and get to bed. She had one last thing to do and she would follow behind.

Mary crawled into her bed and dreamt of what would come with morning—the presents, the light, playing outside in the snow—and she wondered why she and her mother never celebrated Christmas. It was cold outside, but inside she was warm and inside she was safe. Inside she could wait for the morning without having to worry about what waited outside.

When she awoke, the ground wore a fresh blanket of snow and the sun was just peeking out from the horizon. She could smell something outside, something sweet and spicy all at once. Mary saw the beauty of it all as she entered the living room. The boys say cross-legged on the floor while the quiet, older girl fiddled with the lights on the tree.

"Ah, Mary you're awake!" He cried, and jumped up, taking her hands in his. "Merry Christmas! Come on Kido, hurry up so we can open presents!"

In the background, Mary could hear grumbles from the other two, arguing over which switch was the right one. Some bickering later, and the lights were one and the gingerbread was out and so was the camera. They sat around the tree eating gingerbread.

He was the first to open a present. Socks, from his brother. In green. They were hideous, but he thanked his brother for them with a smile anyway. Then his brother pulled some new headphones out of a bag and told his sister that was exactly what he needed. The oldest received a gift card, and then it was her turn.

Gingerly, she opened the package from his brother. Two little gloves sat between layers of tissue paper. They were soft and pink. She stammered "Th-thank you." The brother smiled at her as he tore into a box that held some new CDs. They continued, and then there were two unwrapped gifts left under the tree. One, from him, was for her. One, for her, was from him.

She opened hers first. The name card had a small heart drawn on it, so she took it off carefully and kept it. The wrapping job was poor, like he had never been taught how. Mary pulled it off to reveal a pink ribbon embroidered with red roses. He asked her "What do you think?"

"I love it. Thank you." Barely audible.

"Let me tie it in." He scooted up behind her and took the ribbon from her hands. He tugged on her hair a little bit. "I don't know how, but you look pretty. Kido, did I do it right?"

"It's close enough. A little uneven, but I can fix that. Here." She adjusted the bow atop Mary's head. "Perfect. Now Seto, open yours. It's from Mary."

His eyes lit up as he pulled it from under the tree. He undid the ribbons first and put those aside before tearing into the paper. When he pulled it out, he beamed, practically giving off his own light.

"Wow, thanks Mary!" He wrapped the scarf around his neck. "Where did you get this?"

"I made it." She felt her face turning red.

"It's so soft! Kano, feel this. Mary, this is amazing." He hugged her tightly. "It's even my favorite color."

"It was nothing... Merry Christmas, Seto." She found herself smiling too. "Thank you for this. Thank you for Christmas."


End file.
